Substandard
by Blazichu
Summary: With a quiet moment to spare, Casey Jones tries to wow his boyfriend by introducing him to the wonders of non-sentai anime. Now if only he can get Donnie past that initial misunderstanding...


Technically, this is a sequel to Leaps and Bounds; there isn't anything you need to know from that fic to understand this, though.

That being said, enjoy!

* * *

"So, you a sub man or a dub man?"

Don stopped cold, slowly turning away from his current project to fix Casey with a thunderous look.

Casey, unruffled by this new development, shrugged. "What? S'just anime. You know, subtitles and dub… uh… titles. Where'd that oversized mind'a yours-" He trailed off as laughter overtook any coherent words he had to offer, but tried one more time in order to choke out, "Y-you little green _pervert_. What kinda studyin' have you been _doing_?"

Immediately, Casey found himself prodded sharply with the business end of Don's naginata- the blade, thankfully, still buried within the weapon itself.

"Don't look at me, look at Mr. 'We're not that kind of sub'." Donnie grumbled to himself, suppressing a disgusted shudder. "What, exactly, are you on about?"

"Well, ya see, there's this thing called the _internet_, and I was wonderin' how exactly ya came across-"

"Not that." He cut in swiftly, before Casey could get him any more flustered, "Your 'sub versus dub' thing. And, for the record, there's no such thing as a 'dubtitle'; the word 'dub' is the same you hear in words like 'dubbing', which is the practice of unofficially labeling something. You know, 'I dub thee'…?"

"King of the Nerds?"

Blush successfully fought down, Don refocused on Casey, giving him what he hoped was a flat look. As before, the human in question didn't seem to mind.

Snorting, Casey propped his feet up on the worktable- twice, once to establish that he was doing it, and another time to reclaim his ground after Donnie shoved him away- and leaned back in his chair. "Anyway, subs 'n dubs. Which do you prefer?"

Don blinked at him. "Does it matter?"

"Uh, _yeah_." Casey sat up suddenly, eyes alight, and positioned himself closer to Donatello than strictly necessary. Don sighed and pushed his work away, but didn't bother trying to move Casey himself. "It's, like, the biggest debate _ever_."

Chin propped up on one hand so he could witness the impending train-wreck unhindered, Donnie smirked. "Is that so? Well, I'm sure I've never heard any philosophical question so _crucial_ to the continued existence of sapient life. Please, educate me."

"Well, ya see, subs are subtitled. An' a lot of 'em are fanmade, you know? So it ain't official or anythin', but it's a lot closer to the source material than you get with English. With dubs- _whatever_ you called 'em- ya get the official release an' everything, but the localization teams screw a bunch'a stuff up. There was this one company that, like, _killed_ the biggest anime in years 'cause it kept editin' stuff out, an' rumor has it the mangaka based plot points offa that stuff just 'cause they did that. It's weird. You know, they did some original cartoons, too, an' they weren't half bad. Got away with a _lotta_ stuff they didn't let their localizations do." Face twisted in thought, Casey surveyed the lab's ceiling, racking his brain for a way to convey the rest of his knowledge on the subject. Finally, he registered Don's prodding. "Why d'you have to make everything like that?"

With one hand over his beak, hiding his smile, Donnie coughed to cover a bubble of laughter. It clearly wasn't enough to be effective camouflage, because Casey lit back up when he heard. "Okay, I think I've mastered the heady science of 'sub' versus 'dub'. Why are you asking me about it?"

Casey gestured loosely to the door leading into the lair proper, which they'd long since verified was locked tight. As the door into the tunnels was still welded shut, it put a severe damper on what could and couldn't be done for the time being.

Don sincerely doubted his brothers realized that Casey had inflicted himself upon the lab when they decided to shut him in, but there wasn't anything to be done for that now. For the time being, he contented himself with spending time his friend- _boyfriend_, his mind teased him- and vowed to yell at his wayward siblings when the opportunity presented itself.

"I know a bunch'a good series, but they're mostly subs. Just figured ya could use a break from that… whatever it is." Casey wrinkled his nose and squinted at the abandoned pile of metal Don had been working with a moment prior. "What is it?"

Likewise, Donnie frowned at it. He'd been tinkering with the idea of rebuilding Metalhead from the ground up, trying to find some way to preserve its- _his_?- memory in the process. It still wasn't going especially well. A lot of things weren't, lately. Resisting the urge to check on Tim, he substituted, "Nothing important."

Casey rolled his eyes and crashed against Don's side- out of irritation, affection or both- accidentally sending the chair rolling across the lab's smooth floor.

For a moment, they simply stared at each other.

"What?" Casey eventually asked, plopping back down in his designated seat.

With a resigned sigh, Donnie abandoned his own chair- though not without bracing a foot against its backrest and sending it flying at Casey- and went to retrieve his laptop.

"Come here, Jones." He said as he keyed in the relevant passwords and pulled up a browser, "You might not have noticed, but my workbench is for work. This is anything but."

Casey frowned at the jumble of electronics on the aforementioned table. "I thought you said this wasn't important."

"Not important doesn't mean not _work_." As Casey had earlier, he waved vaguely towards the lair proper. "How would we have gotten all the arcade machines if I hadn't repaired them? They don't exactly rank high on my list of priorities. Now come _here_."

Reluctantly, Casey left his perch in favor of joining Donnie in front of what used to be the exit into the tunnels.

"Go ahead and find whatever anime you wanted to watch, just _try_ not to use a site that's been infected with malware." As he spoke, Don was already meandering off across the lab, leaving the human to his own devices.

"You know, the point was for you to take a break and watch this with me." Casey half-yelled as he poked around on the laptop. He looked up, meaning to back his argument, only to find the turtle headed his way with an armful of spare bedding from the infirmary. He stared for a moment, but broke out into a grin before too long. "Never mind. I can live with that."

Don threw the pillow at him.

With the blanket spread out over the concrete to lessen its chill, he went for his laptop again and paused at what he found. Letting a deep breath out through his teeth- and ignoring the snort when his gap turned it into a whistle- he stared hard at Casey.

"Explain."

Lo and behold, the browser window was exactly where he'd left it, save for the history window just off-center. The single word entered into the search field rendered any possible explanation moot. It was kind of funny, actually, since Casey's query had netted him quite a few results… just not the results he'd been looking for when he searched 'sub'.

"I was doing research." Casey said without a hint of shame.

Closing the window, Don rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure, _research_. Tell me how it goes when you build your own submarine."

The wannabe vigilante scoffed and plopped down on the blanket, wincing when the floor reminded him that it was, indeed, quite solid.

"Serves you right." With a great deal more grace- and mindfulness of the stone beneath their feet- Donnie settled himself at the human's side, shell resting against the garage door. "Since you've proven that you can't be trusted with my laptop, why don't you tell me what I'm supposed to be looking up?"

Still fiddling with the pillow he'd propped up behind himself, Casey hesitated. "Oh, right. It's… Oni Busat- Basu… ugh. Just look up Demon Buster Zed."

This time, Don legitimately choked on his laughter. "'Zed'? As in the commonwealth English pronunciation of Z?"

"You mean, like… Canada?"

"Yes."

"Uh… yeah. I guess." Despite the way he tried to play it off, it was easy to see the edges of Casey's ears burning red. "Just be sure to add 'sub', or we'll get the English dub. It ain't a pretty sight." He stopped for a second before adding, "'less you wanna go for the dub. Ya never answered my question."

Fingers flying across the keyboard, Donnie shook his head. "Ah, yes. Whether I am- and I quote- 'a sub man or a dub man'. Honestly, I don't care; I'm bilingual anyway, so it's not like it matters. Well, technically, multilingual… a polyglot, if you count Raph's 'feet and fists' method of communication-"

"Hey Donnie," Casey cut in, abandoning his struggles with the pillow in favor of wedging it between the two of them, creating a buffer between himself and the hard shell that would dig into his side, and tossed an arm over Don's carapace. His tone of voice startled the turtle into looking over, and, sure enough, he wasn't smirking; Casey Jones was actually smiling like a normal being.

"Shut up."

They made it fifteen minutes into 'Oni Basuta Zedo' before the urge to say something inappropriate got the best of Casey again.

"Just for the record, I want'cha to know that I prefer subs in anime, but I _ain't_ a 'sub man'."

"A half hour, Casey." Don groaned, dropping his head into his hands. "That's all I'm asking for. No innuendos for thirty minutes. Can you handle that?"

Casey frowned exaggeratedly, taking a moment to mull the request over. "Nah, you got it all wrong, babe. Subs don't give orders."

"_Casey…_"

"Oh, whatever."


End file.
